The Arctic and the Antarctic, two of my favorite places on this planet, have been the hardest hit by global warming thus far (average temperatures near the poles have risen several degrees in the past fifty years), so it’s difficult to listen to arguments about how global warming is a myth or that humans aren’t causing it. In a discussion about global warming on Slashdot, one poster nailed my feelings exactly:
“I do find it amusing to see people argue that a large number of experienced, intelligent, educated people are somehow irrelevant because some pundit shoots off his mouth… Seriously, anyone can have an opinion. Opinions aren’t special, how they’re formed and backed up is. I’m going to give special attention to people with the education and knowledge and listen to them if they seem trustworthy. Same reason I listen to my doctor on my health, my auto mechanic on my car, and why I expect people I work with to listen to me on issues of coding, data flow, and application development.”
With the majority of the scientific community now saying that global warming is real, and that it is almost certainly caused by humans, I’m baffled as to why the discussion hasn’t moved on to what can we do and is instead still focused on how can we be absolutely sure. If scientists are wrong about global warming, reducing pollution will still be a net benefit. If scientists are right, inaction will lead to countless extinctions and a vast disruption to life as we know it.
